


slow dance

by Anemoi



Series: if it's all you can do [2]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3714877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anemoi/pseuds/Anemoi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> The silence will take care of itself </i>
  <br/>
  <i> but I want you, not somebody else </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	slow dance

**Author's Note:**

> one more and it might be a series entitled "raul stuck in suburban retirement hell" and im stuck writing about them god fucking damn it

 Mamen wants to take a ballroom dancing class.

“What?” Raúl says, blinking at her. It's a Sunday. Mamen's putting fresh flowers in a vase, her hands gently stripping away stray leaves.

“You'll enjoy it, I know.” She turns to smile at him. “It's a community thing. Americans love these little gatherings. I told Alice I would go, and I need a dance partner so you're coming too.”

Alice was their neighbor. Raúl spoons cereal in to his mouth, ruffles Mateo's hair as he stomps by.

He shrugs, and they drive over to the community center in the evening. Theres only about 10 couples, and they all seem to know each other. Raúl feels out of place, since everyone else was in their 50s and early 60s.

Mamen's presence was comforting, and she catches on early to the trainer's instructions. Raúl leads, but Mamen was the one making sure they glided on the floor, gracefully encircled in Raúl's arms.

They end the dance with a dip, Mamen smiling faintly up at him. Raúl bends to kiss the corner of her mouth. Their dance trainer starts clapping and then everyone joins in, and afterwards Raúl promises to watch soccer with Alice's husband next time Real Madrid plays.

"Still want to go next week?" Raul says later, driving home. 

Mamen's not looking at him, turned towards the window. "No." She says, shaking her head. "Everyone there's too old." 

 

-

- _he turns around and Guti's there, smiling helplessly in one of those suits that he insists looks good with a vest. The colors don't quite match- its a grey vest, his tie's a little crooked, his suit's dark charcoal. Guti's walking towards him, dust motes thrown up by his steps glinting in the sunlight, and his face was unlined, eyes blue like the sky above the Bernabeu._

_Raúl's just standing there. He feels something strange and light in his chest. He's smiling, and now Guti is near enough to slot in to his arms. Guti sighs, warm breath right beside his ear._

_They step on each other's feet because they're both trying to lead, and Guti laughs, swears at him but Raúl can't even distinguish the words because he was caught up on how much love he can hear in Guti's voice and he's looking down, and they don't try to step in time anymore, they just sway._

_Ra_ _ú_ _l's arms around Guti's waist, Guti's chin on Ra_ _ú_ _l's shoulder, and the music is something slow and soft._

 

-

 

Raúl wakes up. Mamen's curled away from him on the other side of the bed. He stretches out an arm towards her, but the space between them was cool, the sheets undisturbed. For a moment he lies there, looking up at the dark ceiling. Then he gets up, wincing at the pain in his thigh where he'd caught a defender's studs from last match, and slowly slides on his dressing gown.

He walks downstairs, turns on the tap. The pain will fade, he tells himself, tips the bottle in to his palm and swallows two pills. He's unsure, suddenly, which one he's referring to.

The pain will fade. He sits by the counter, and watches the slow tick of the clock, the second hand inching its way inexorably towards morning. The pain will fade.

And it does. It does. 

**Author's Note:**

> _"but, darling, just a taste of it_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _I want you, not somebody_  
>  _I want you, not somebody_  
>  _I want you, not some, some-"_


End file.
